Anti-American Ambivalence

While global opinion polls suggest that anti-Americanism is on the rise, Washingtonpost.com correspondent Amar Bakshi says international sentiment has complex undertones of suspicion, admiration, and fear. Bakshi spent the last eight months surveying popular feelings towards America for the foreign affairs blog PostGlobal.

Comments [6]

Donald
from Ashland, VA

I talk to my car radio. When you announced this feature, I said to the radio, "I'll bet they don't tell us a single positive comment about America." Your reporter didn't disappoint me; how unfortunate you are sooooooooo predictable.

My big hearted cousin spent over a year serving as a Lt. Col. in the Reserves in Afghanistan. When he was there, he emailed home dire reports and predictions and described his belief that we will need to train "generations of warriors" to fight the menace he perceived.

The problem for me is that I am well aware that my cousin (and very many in today’s all “volunteer” services) is a born-again, who believes utterly in the literal truth of the Judeo-Christian bible and rejects entirely scientific evidence to the contrary. These are most often the people who are our day-today emissaries in the portions of the Muslim world which we occupy.

Mr. Bush may have retracted his original claim that the war on terror was a crusade, but the soldier in the field has internalized that charge and, well-meaning as they may be, many must communicate the message that Americans are there to save Muslim souls. Thus, even without the weapons, Muslims would interpret that as a war on Islam.

One key contributor of anti-Americanism is the resolution of the cold war. There are many people who were not too pleased with the outcome of the clash between socialism/Soviet Union and capitalism/USA. The festering resentment of the Berlin Wall coming down has been and will remain a source sour feelings amongst many of the intellectual and activist communities that drive a lot of the resentment.

Anti-Americanism did not exist in the Middle East sixty years ago, even though Arab countries made war against Israel several times. There was no significant terrorism against Israel or the U.S. until after Israel pre-emptively invaded the Sinai, Gaza and the West Bank and occupied these territories in 1968. Its oppressive occupation, illegal seizure of land and resources and other acts are directly related to the rise of terrorism and anti-American feeling. Why doesn't the media tell the American people that America's blind support of Israel is the root cause of anti-American feelings all over the world?

This reminds me of a statement Slavoj Žižek made recently in which he said: "[E]verybody in the world, except US citizens, be allowed to vote and elect the American government. I think it would have been much better for you, even, because we all outside the United States would project our desires into how you should be."

In your story about Anti-Americanism in the world you commented that Muslims felt that America was anti-Islam. Then you gave reasons why this was a misperception on their part. You failed to recognize that groups like John Hagee's give huge amounts of money to Israel and are encouraging our leaders to attack Iran. The sad fact is that there are millions of Americans who are anti-Islamic and they are encouraged not only by their pastors but by government leaders who talk of "Islamo-facism". I think Muslims have sound reasons to to think that America is anti-Muslim. Why didn't your story address that?